Bulgaria's consumer watchdog cites food markups of up to 150% at retail chains
Consumer Protection Commission chief Maya Manolova gave first inspection results: butter up 125%, cheese 95%, fresh milk up to 99%. Findings on five chains are due next week.
Symbolic image · Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Maya Manolova, head of Bulgaria's Consumer Protection Commission (KZP), told BNT on Sunday that initial inspections at large retail chains found markups of up to 150% on some foods. She cited butter at 125%, white cheese at 95% and fresh milk at up to 99%, adding that at one chain she had personally seen markups on dairy products such as kashkaval cheese of up to 99%.
Manolova said detailed results for five large chains would be presented next week. The KZP is also checking, together with the food safety agency BABH, whether potatoes sold as Bulgarian are in fact low-quality Greek ones. She plans to refer meal-voucher fees (up to 6% of a purchase) and rental charges for delivery crates (1.20 euros per crate) to the competition commission.
She argued that current law lets chains keep high markups with little consequence and called for legislative changes. The KZP can sanction unjustified price rises and unfair trading practices only in cases defined by law. The figures are Manolova's own and have not been independently verified.